Typewriters Galore

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap Tap. Zing! Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. 

That is me typing on my typewriter when I was eleven years old.

I'd found it at a garage sale in my development. All I could think was "WANT." So, I rode by bike home, dug up the cash, and hurried back over to buy it. When I got it home, I hooked it up and it didn't work. Then I fiddled--not something a kid should probably do with an old piece of machinery if she actually wants it to ever work again, but somehow after cleaning the ribbon, taking out pieces and putting them right back in, I got the keys to pound out some inked letters on paper. I wrote poems, plays, random prose. I loved that thing. To this day I don't know what happened to it. I remember that it stopped working and I needed to replace a part, but I never did. I think my mom threw it away after that because it was just gone.

Ever since, I have been dying for a "new" typewriter. I was ecstatic when I was at "journalism camp" at Northwestern the summer between my junior and senior year of college, we were required to do type our articles on Smith Coronas. I'll gaze into store windows when an typewriter sits up front until someone literally drags me away. I reblog photos of typewriters whenever possible on Tumblr. I adore them. I don't know what it is.

So, naturally, when Flavorwire posted a great slideslow of fun typewriters that are currently on the market last week, I drooled.I I saved the link for later second and third viewings, and of course, for purchase potential. Then today, another typewriter-related article from The Atlantic was sent to me by a friend, this time discussing more than just regular old typewriter options. This time, it focused on 25-year-old guy who, after finding a typewriter on the side of the street one day, decided to find a why to hook it up to a computer:

Jack Zylkin, an engineer, hooks antique typewriters up to modern computers and tablets to create functioning writing machines -- and then sells them on Etsy. It's almost a perfect storm of hipster obsessions. Vintage? Check. Handmade? Check. iPad? Check. Open source? Check. Et cetera. You might be tempted roll your eyes, but watch this documentary from Etsy's Handmade Portraits series and see if he doesn't convince you that there's something extremely satisfying about merging antique machinery with glossy, networked devices. The video was produced by Jenny Schweitzer, who provides more background on the project here. 

See the original post HERE

I don't know if I would want one necessarily, though it is pretty damn awesome.

I will have to ponder this further. 

Tom and Huck Get a Makeover

At home on my bookshelf sits an old, hardcover-bound copy of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. Its pages are a bit yellowed as I've had the edition since I was a little girl, the margins and leading wide enough for easy reading and the illustrations floating prettily around the pages in blank ink. Soon after acquiring the edition, I became obsessed with the flick "Mark Twain and Me," watching in a loop on rainy days.

Now, that was how I was introduced to Mark Twain. But kids today might soon be experiencing a different kind of meet-cute. A steampunky one, according to GalleyCat:

Mark Twain‘s famous characters Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn could star in a steampunk sequel to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. ABC has ordered a script for the possible show titled Finn & Sawyer.
 
The Hollywood Reporter has the scoop: “The drama hails from Detroit 1-8-7 duo Jason Richman and David Zabel and is described as an adventure-themed reinvention that revolves around the two famed literary characters who re-meet as young men in their 20s and form an investigative firm in a bustling and steampunk New Orleans.”

If you want to read Twain’s most famous novels, visit our Free eBook Flowchart to download free copies of the digital books. What is steampunk, you may ask? Follow this link to find out more about the genre. (E. W. Kemble illustration via the 1884 edition of Huckleberry Finn; link via i09)

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The Hollywood Reporter goes on to share more details about the modernization:

Richman and Zabel (ER) will write and executive produce the project from ABC Studios and Temple Hill Entertainment.

Finn & Sawyer is the latest adaptation of the famed novel, which was first published in 1884. Coincidentally, ABC adapted the material for a 1975 TV movie that starred Happy Days duo Ron Howard and Donny Most as Huck and Tom, respectively, and again in 1985 with Drew Barrymore as Hucklemary Finn for another movie of the week.

See the original post HERE

I'll admit that this concept could be a very fun one, bringing together two of the most popular young characters in American literature. It reminds me a bit of Jim O'Brien's "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles" in a way actually, and those are definitely fun. Yet, the fact that as a result of this new show, many kids will probably meet Tom and Huck in a twisted, steampunked version of the classic Twain novels, is sad to me. They will miss out on so much.